Back to category: English

Limited version - please login or register to view the entire paper.

Several of the ways Barbara Gowdy Captures a Child’s way of Understanding the World in Presbyterian Crosswalk

In the short story Presbyterian Crosswalk, Barbara Gowdy tells a tale about a young girl. Beth - the main character - is an imaginative, sensitive, and innocent child. The author tells the story from her perspective, allowing you to see life through her eyes, and read her thoughts. Gowdy captures a child’s way of understanding the world, in several ways, in her short story Presbyterian Crosswalk.
Gowdy is successful in capturing a child’s creative imagination. Children lack the experience to comprehend the world around them and as a result will read the world as they see it through their own original eyes. Beth and her grandmother started attending the newly built Presbyterian church, and her grandmother would council her by way of biblical quotations. After a few months, a crosswalk appeared at the end of the road and Beth thought it said “Presbyterian” rather than “Pedestrian” crosswalk, as well as the sign above which said “Watch for Presbyterians,” (75...

Posted by: Sylvia Schiavoni

Limited version - please login or register to view the entire paper.